The invention aims to provide a process enabling images to be obtained of geological samples with a view to their optical analysis, together with a device for its implementation.
These samples, which may be of small dimensions, appear in the form of cores taken at various depth levels in boreholes. Once brought to the surface, the cores are prepared for a visual examination, the observations of which form teh subject of a descriptive report. This examination report, based on interpretations and codifications using conventional sedimentology symbols and charts, seeks to define, for example, the form, structure, colour and minerological composition of each sample.
The cores are then quickly stored in conditions ensuring their sound preservation, which often limits the possibilities of direct visual comparison between samples made on a given site.
The comparisonn of these samples and a fortiori the research conducted subsequently, which involves comparative analyses of samples obtained on different sites, may often only be carried out, for practical reasons, on the single basis of descriptive reports, in other words on data already interpreted. The analysis work of geologists is consequently slowed down and rendered more difficult.